I wish she would eat more

[Rrrma]

It seems like my eclectus never eats. I mean, I know she does eat SOME, as food goes missing from her cage... but she never seems eager for it, ever. I have even left her without food overnight and into the morning and she still isn't eager.

When I put their meals(they get 2 a day) in their bowls, the amazon and grey attack! but she just sits there. I never see her eat, it is annoying! She has lost some weight, but only a very small amount and she was a bit overweight before(she was on too many seeds/nuts).

She seems to love Harrison pellets and eats those out of her dry bowl(she gets a mix of pellets, some dried herbs, and a small amount of nuts/seeds). She likes sweet potato, rice, and she eat bok choy when I hang it in her cage.

I mean she eats, she has good healthy looking droppings and a frequent amount... but gah I wish she would eat more! Or someone with the proper knowledge could tell me exactly how much food she should consume a day. I know I offer her too much, I offer them all too much and expect leftovers. But she eats the least of all my birds, even though she is my biggest.

[birdvet]

Hey. Try weighing her daily to keep a very close eye on her weight. If she's maintaining/gaining then rest assured, she's eating . The amount birds eat depends on the energy content of the diet. Other factors that affect the amount include moulting (which is very energy expensive) etc.

Check out this link...its from the Clinical Avian Medicine book by Greg Harrison. He'll obviously recommend Harrisons bird pellets but any reputable brand is fine. The chapter is generally just a good source of nutritional info, ignore the product selling stuff

http://www.avianmedicine.net/cam/04nutrition1.pdf

[ptuga72]

Rrrma are you on the lov board as well? I think I've seen your name there too, it's nice talking to people with ekkies, it seems not too many have them on here...

but back on topic. How long have you had your Rosie? I can't seem to remember. My Scarlet didn't like to eat in front of me until recently and even now normally is hungry when I least expect it. She wont eat right when she gets up and not directly before bed. She is actually the hungriest in the middle of the day (weird I know). If you recently switched her diet this can affect her eating habits as well.

my vote is if she is maintaining a healthy weight then maybe what her normal food intake has changed. Weigh food before you give it to her, then again after you take it away. Do that for a week or so and you'll know on average how much she eats.

[Rrrma]

I am indeed on the LOV board, it is a cool place.

I've had her 2 years in October and we share food all the time, and she eats better when we sit at the table with her bowl than she does when I leave her bowl in the cage. I put the amazon's food bowl on the same size as Rosie's hoping the company would encourage her... but it hasn't.

Yes I've recently switched her from an all seed/nuts and some fruits/veggies diet to a pellet and lots of fruits/veggies/grains/sprouts/etc. So I've cut the seeds/nuts out and upped the intake of other things.

She has lost a little weight, but she was on a too high fat diet before. I got a scale and weighed her today and she is 434g, which is on the low end for a Vos. I think she should weigh slightly more, but only ever so slightly. I have realized I cut out TOO much fat from their diets, so I'm trying to incorporate more healthy fat/proteins back into it.

The weighing of food is a good idea too. I worry so much that she isn't eating enough. I realize that her digestive tract is much longer than the other 2, so maybe she also holds food longer and so doesn't need to eat as much as often.

I'll be weighing her daily until we figure it out though.

[georgi]

Unless she starts to lose an unreasonable amount of weight, i wouldn't worry about it. Just keep an eye on her and weigh her as said previously. Some birds just 'eat like birds'. lol.

Birds are social eaters. If you can, feed her and then sit down and eat something yourself and see if she'll eat. My CAG is a very social eater - he'll eat a bit of his meals and then go perch somewhere but as soon as we walk in with our dinner (we eat in the living room and that's where Pickles is), he goes right back down to his dish and eats while we do.

In the meantime, birds can be fussy about their food. It may not be that they don't like a particular fruit or veggie, it might be that it's out of season at the time, or just not a very tasty product. I don't know how many times, the first couple of years we had Pickles, that i stopped feeding him certain things because he 'didn't like it', only to hand him the same thing one day and have him eat it!

Another thing is that they might like it prepared certain ways. Pickles won't eat a chunk of carrot, only a shaving. Some things he likes cut up bite size but others he likes in a chunk that he can hold in his talon. Some things he won't eat unless it's hanging on a skewer. He won't eat papaya but he eats the seeds, thereby getting a bit of the meat in him. He won't eat fresh peas or corn unless it's warmed up. He won't eat oranges but he will eat the pith from the rind. And anything that he absolutely won't eat, i mix in my birdie breads with good spices and he'll chow down and get the nutrients he needs from them.

Sometimes it just takes patience and creativity. I hope this helps.

[Rrrma]

Yeah I do the social eating thing. I feed them breakfast as I get ready to leave the house, but dinner is our big meal and they get their food as I'm preparing our food and then we sit down to eat. This hasn't made a difference to her. She is such a stubborn thing.

I try to offer different size/shapes of the same items and they get a mash as well. The mash is typically what they go for and she eats hers... it just takes hours for her food to start dwindling. I've tried putting food in for only a set time, then taking it out and waiting until the next mealtime... but that doesn't matter either.

I keep failing at my bird bread recipes. I've wasted so much food trying to make it :/
The last batch was done on the outside but still mash on the inside, I decided to mix it with mashed pumpkin and they are enjoying that. But so much for "bread" lol

[Rue]

Maybe she's just a nibbler vs. a glutton. Unless it's horribly hot/humid food should be fine for ~ 4 hours in her cage. I don't rush to remove the soft foods...

Actually, I tend to feed dinner on the play tops, so the bowls aren't in the cages with them...that way I can't forget to take one out should it grow some mould.

[georgi]

The trick with the birdie breads is to mix it to a bread dough consistency. After you've added all your ingredients and it's too gooey - add more flour. If it's too dry, add more liquid. It should be cooked at 350F for an hour, possibly more. That's if you are making enough to fill a regular cake pan. Too dry is better than too wet.

My bird, Pickles, doesn't eat near as much as most birds do. I use to spend so much time trying to get different foods into him and finally realized he just doesn't have a big appetite and as long as he's healthy, i stopped worrying about it. Hopefully this is the case for you.